The Medical Officer of Health for the Quinte area says sticking to household numbers for Thanksgiving and other holidays will reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19.
Following the Hastings Prince Edward Board of Health teleconference on Wednesday, Dr. Piotr Oglaza commented to the media on limiting contact during the holidays.
He emphasized that it’s not about cancelling Thanksgiving or Halloween, or Christmas.
There’s just different ways people can do that to minimize the risk.
Oglaza urged people to think about it from a different perspective.
“If we reduce the bubble to the household only, it becomes more clear. Lets say we set number at five. ..if that number five includes someone who’s been interacting with another bubble of five, all of a sudden this doubles the number of contacts. So sticking to the household only will increase our chances of reducing the risk of spread. That’s the message. This is what people can do about it.”
Oglaza also emphasized, “It’s not in the contxt of cancelling Halloween but to look at this. How we can still have some celebrations but in a way that’s different from what we had in previous years. That’s intended to minimize the risk. There’s different creative ways people can do that.”
He added, “The rise in cases (in the Quinte area) is not unexpected but we can make sure that its as much contained as possible.”
When questioned about guidelines around the trick or treat situation at Halloween, Oglaza pointed out it’s still a few weeks away.
He said the parameters will be different, but how it will be different will be known closer to the date, October 31.
